The School:

St Elizabeth’s Primary, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, is in their first year of working with Enabling Enterprise. Back in school, students will be developing their Enterprise Skills through Lesson-Time Projects they will be taking on in each year group later in the year. Today’s trip was their very first taste of this enterprise education programme and a fantastic opportunity for students from Year 6 to put their Staying Positive and Problem Solving skills to the test with the support from professional business volunteers.

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The Business:

Brewin Dolphin is one of the UK’s leading providers of personalised, discretionary wealth management services, offering investment management and financial planning services to investors and intermediaries. With origins dating back to the mid-18th century, they were one of the founding firms of the London Stock Exchange. They have 28 offices throughout the UK & Ireland and have a wealth of experience dealing with investment markets.

The Challenge: Lend-a-Hand

The day started off with the students interviewing the volunteers to find out about their different roles, responsibilities and the Enterprise Skills required to do their jobs. The 10- to 11-year olds were keen to quiz the professionals on all the top tips they could give on Working in a Team, Problem Solving and Staying Positive.
Taking on the role of Financial Advisors, students were given the task of advising a client to make sensible financial decisions for a range of different life events. Teams had to put their Problem Solving skills to the test to work out the pros and cons of different suggestions. Taking the priorities and needs of the client on board, teams then worked together to suggest the best possible course of action for their client. The teams’ Staying Positive skills were put to the test when they realised that decisions they had made earlier on were having an impact on the advice they were giving their client later in the day.
The challenge culminated with teams holding a budgeting meeting with the client to share their top tips and financial advice. The Brewin Dolphin volunteers watched the meeting and used their expertise to judge which team was Listening Carefully to their client and had used their enterprise skills to make the most sensible decisions along the way.…

What they said:

“It is about getting them to apply the academic skills they learn in school in a proactive way to solve problems. The discussions they have been having are phenomenal!” – Volunteer

“Children were engaged with the activities at all times. And there was plenty of scope for follow-up investigations and expanded topic work with cross-curricular opportunities. I also think the children have gained from ‘real world’ maths exposure – I would consider this to be of the utmost importance as it is often difficult to rationalize number in an abstract context. Furthermore, the strong focus on reasoning and problem solving is beneficial and in line with our continued assessment focus.” – Teacher

“I liked the budget activity because it was good to go through it step by step: it prepares us for when we are adults.” – Student

Thanks to everyone for such a great trip day!

Enabling Enterprise are working in partnership with schools and businesses to support students to build enterprise skills and aspirations. Find out more by contacting us or visiting enablingenterprise.org